eCommerce Dashboards – From Data to Insights to Business Growth

Imagine this scenario: you’re a captain navigating a ship through uncharted waters. 

You must keep your eye on the horizon, the wind, and the currents to steer your ship to its destination.

Your destination depends on how good you are at multi-tasking and how quickly you can react to sudden changes. 

The captain’s destiny resembles the situation of an eCommerce professional. 

You have to watch your website, customers, product performance, competition, etc. – to guide your business toward success. 

That’s where an eCommerce dashboard comes in – a powerful tool to help you keep track of the KPIs and metrics that count most to your business. 

So, hoist your sails, and let’s set a course to explore the world of eCommerce dashboards!

What is an eCommerce Dashboard?

An eCommerce dashboard represents a visual representation of Key Performance Metrics (KPIs) and metrics that track and showcase the performance of a business. 

eCommerce businesses use dashboards to visualize their data more effectively on sales, revenue, traffic, conversion rates, customer behavior, and other essential eCommerce metrics.

Marketing people rely on data visualization to create a centralized, unique location of their data from various sources, such as sales platforms, marketing dashboards, and web analytics tools. 

This way, they can monitor the performance of their online store (or hybrid store) in real time, track goal progression, and act on low-performing metrics.

In such a competitive eCommerce market, businesses need all hands on deck regarding finding growth opportunities, optimizing their marketing campaigns, and even improving customer satisfaction.

In this situation, an eComm dashboard will prove itself priceless. 

It offers professionals a precise analysis of the overall health of their eCommerce business and enables them to act quickly and efficiently to improve their bottom line.

Benefits of an eCommerce Dashboard

An eCommerce dashboard will unlock numerous benefits – from optimizing the customer experience to creating more repeat customers and achieving sustainable business growth. 

The highly customizable nature of this eCommerce analytics tool empowers you to uncover valuable insights and data that can be used to fine-tune every aspect of your online business: from product offerings and pricing to website design and marketing strategies. 

Here’s how an eCommerce dashboard can help you overcome the most common and seemingly impossible challenges of online marketing:

Real-time monitoring

One of the most significant issues in eCommerce is the lack of real-time monitoring, which prevents professionals from being proactive with their processes. 

An eComm dashboard solves this issue, offering real-time insights on crucial KPIs. You’ll quickly identify problems or opportunities and make informed decisions to drive growth. 

For example, suppose you notice a sudden drop in website traffic. Seeing this, you can investigate the cause and take action to resolve the issue before it negatively impacts your sales.

Centralized data

Data silos are another issue in eComm & Retail, leading to poor decision-making processes and a lack of cross-departmental collaboration. 

An eCommerce dashboard can combine data from all sources into one centralized location. 

A unique source of truth makes it easier for professionals to make data-driven decisions about marketing campaigns, product development, and inventory management.

Improved decision-making

This comes with a naturally positive effect of real-time centralized data monitoring. 

Your dashboard will provide a holistic view of your business performance, helping you make better-informed decisions. 

For example, suppose you notice that a specific brand is becoming a best-seller. In that case, you can order more inventory to meet demand or update your marketing campaigns to capitalize on the purchase trend.

Enhanced collaboration

When departments don’t work together for the same goal, the business doesn’t grow. 

It’s like having a husky-led sled where each dog is chasing a different cat in different directions. Chaos and danger. 

Instead, using an eCommerce dashboard can promote collaboration between departments by providing a shared platform for data analysis. 

Having all team members access and interpret the same data in real-time will ensure everyone is working towards the same goals.

Increased efficiency

With an eComm dashboard, you can automatically collect and analyze your data. This automation will save you time and money otherwise spent on manual tasks, freeing your teams up for more creative tasks. 

This will increase efficiency, as your teams will spend less time in routine work and more time orchestrating revenue-generating business processes, such as product development and customer service.

Customization

While your business grows and changes, your objectives will also evolve.

You might need to monitor your CAC: CLV ratio one month, and the next, you’ll need to check your products’ performance. 

This is why the highly customizable nature of your eCommerce dashboard is instrumental, as it allows you to track the KPIs that matter most to you at any given time. 

This agility will help you focus on the most important metrics of your business and make more informed decisions as your processes naturally progress.

Better customer insights

Lastly, we’re reaching the most important stakeholders of your business: your customers. 

Customer centricity is the key to surviving and thriving in the eComm Arena. Without customer insights, you can’t achieve it.

Your dashboard provides insights into customer behavior (purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics) that will inform your marketing campaigns.

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How to Create an eCommerce Dashboard

There are several steps to creating an eCommerce dashboard template. 

From identifying the KPIs and metrics you need to track to selecting a visualization tool and designing the layout, you’ll need to carefully consider creating a custom dashboard.

Of course, these steps might vary depending on how much data you have, the metrics you’re tracking, and your ultimate goals. However, here are the general steps to create an eCommerce dashboard:

Select your metrics and KPIs

From the entirety of eComm metrics and KPIs existing in the world, it’s time to narrow down and decide which ones you want to track on your dashboard. 

We can discuss sales, revenue, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, cart abandonment rates, etc. What’s important is that the KPIs are relevant and aligned with your business goals. 

At the same time, beware of vanity metrics and focus on those that will genuinely impact your bottom line and move the needle in the right direction.

Pick a visualization tool

You have several options for visualization tools Excel, Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio, and others.

Try them out, then pick the most intuitive one you’re most comfortable using, so the eComm dashboard won’t feel like a burden.

Gather and organize your data

Now it’s time to gather your data from all sources (eComm platforms, marketing channels, web analytics) and organize it in your dashboard. 

Choose a format you can quickly analyze and visualize.

Design your layout

Now it’s time to decide on the layout of your dashboard.

Pick the visualizations you want, and decide how they’ll be arranged. The idea is to pick a layout that’s intuitive and easy to read.

Generate the visualizations

Now it’s time to create the charts, graphs, and other visualizations displayed on your dashboard.

Make sure the visualizations are accurate, informative, and visually appealing.

Customize and refine

Congratulations, you’ve just created your first dashboard!

Take it for a spin and see how it fits your needs and where you might need to refine and customize it to meet your goals. 

You may need to adjust the data sources, update the visualizations, or add new metrics as your business grows.

Once all steps are complete and you have your dashboard, it’s time to share it with your team and other stakeholders. 

You can all use the dashboard to monitor your performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve your business.

Must-haves for eCommerce Dashboards

Before we move on to some eCommerce dashboard examples, we should definitely take into account the functionalities and attributes of your dashboard so you have a set of criteria to start you off in your search:

Business relevance

The dashboard’s features need to be connected to your business goals. For example, a dashboard such as Google Analytics will show you website traffic but won’t tell you much about your email conversion rate.

Pinpoint the actual challenges you’re dealing with across all departments – from the C-Level down to individual employees. Then customize your dashboard to gain relevant insights for your business goals and objectives.

Frequency of use

Before investing in an eCommerce dashboard, think about its usage. Will your teams login and check the data daily, hourly, or weekly? 

The more often you’re going to use your dashboard, the more features you’re going to need. 

Usability 

The primary purpose of an eComm dashboard is to simplify and declutter your data. 

Therefore, your dashboard should be intuitive, easy to use, and a real asset – not just another complicated tool that requires you to invest hours and hours in the onboarding process without providing the insights you need.

KPIs and Metrics for eCommerce Dashboards

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) go into one of two categories: 

• High-level KPIs – used to monitor and evaluate your organization’s overall performance. Examples of high-level KPIs include revenue, the Net Promoter Score, or the Customer Lifetime Value.

• Low-level KPIs – used to track the performance of individual departments or even employees. Such KPIs include social media engagement, product return rate, or customer acquisition cost.

The main difference between these business metrics is that high-level KPIs provide an overview of your business’s performance. In contrast, low-level KPIs provide more granular insights into specific business areas. 

Evidently, you should monitor high- and low-level metrics and KPIs. You need to get a bird’s eye view of your business performance and then get down to each department to see how small data-driven decisions will impact your bottom line and business growth.

Thus being said, here’s a list of KPIs and metrics we’re advising you to include in your dashboard template:

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV measures the total amount a customer should spend over their entire relationship with your eCommerce store. 

Tracking CLV helps you identify your most valuable customers, optimize your customer acquisition budget, and prioritize your customer care processes. 

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The NPS enables you to gauge customer satisfaction levels by measuring their likelihood of recommending your business. 

By measuring pre- and post-delivery NPS, you can determine whether or not you’re meeting the under-promise, over-deliver principles, understand where your customers need to see more involvement from you, and even earn new customers through referrals. 

Conversion Rate

Conversion rates represent the % of prospects who complete a desired action (purchasing, subscribing, attending an event, etc.)

This metric helps you understand how effectively your website and marketing campaigns drive sales. 

Average order value (AOV)

This KPI measures the average amount spent by customers on each order.

AOV improvement helps you increase revenue without having to spend more on customer acquisition.

Gross margin

Gross margin is the amount of the total revenue that remains after you’ve paid all your expenses.

Gross margin is a high-level KPI that helps you understand your profitability and identify areas for cost-cutting and revenue growth.

Revenue

This metric tracks the total amount of money your eComm business generates. You should customize your dashboard to track revenue by channel, location, brands, or products to get granular insights into your best and worst-performing processes.

Monitor revenue so you can identify which actions drive the most sales and plan for the future accordingly.

Evidently, these aren’t the only KPIs you need to track. However, they’re a great starting point for creating an eCommerce dashboard that delivers relevant insights for improving profitability and business growth.

Omniconvert Reveal as an eCommerce Dashboard

Omniconvert’s Reveal enables you to maximize the potential of your customer data through advanced segmentation techniques. 

Compared to other analytics dashboards that only store your data, Reveal empowers you to retain and acquire high-value customers through valuable customer insights. 

Our platform helps you identify your business’s most promising growth opportunities, including acquisition, retention, and customer loyalty initiatives. While enabling you to stay on top of critical metrics and make informed decisions.

Streamline your team’s workflow and optimize your operations with Reveal.

eCommerce Dashboard Examples

Now let’s look at other dashboard examples, so you’ll better understand the reporting dashboards available.

However, we won’t be going so in-depth with each example, as your business needs will ultimately dictate which dashboard works best for you.

• Shopify: Probably the most well-known dashboard, Shopify provides users with an overview of their store’s performance, including sales, visitors, and orders. 

• WooCommerce: WooCommerce’s dashboard is similar to Shopify’s but with more customization options. Users can choose which widgets to display and access more detailed reports and analytics.

• Magento: While Magento’s dashboard is more complex than Shopify or WooCommerce, it also provides incredible data and functionality. Magento users can create custom reports, track sales, and revenue by channel, and manage multiple stores from one dashboard.

• BigCommerce: This dashboard is user-friendly and easy to navigate, with clear charts and graphs. It also offers detailed reports, analytics, inventory, and customer management.

Wrap Up

Returning to the sea metaphor, your eCommerce dashboard can become a compass, helping you navigate the vast and sometimes treacherous waters of eComm & Retail.

Creating a solid dashboard with the right KPIs and metrics gives you a comprehensive view of your business’s performance, enabling you to make data-driven decisions to steer it toward success. 

Don’t be afraid to set sail and explore the possibilities of eCommerce dashboards.

Good luck!

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